


The Hurculean Heart

by Emblue_Sparks



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 19:43:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12327585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emblue_Sparks/pseuds/Emblue_Sparks
Summary: Despite Cas always being a little different, he and Dean were the bestest of friends. Dean has a heart of gold and when he comes home from college, he'd love to give his heart to Cas.





	The Hurculean Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This is for the Promptober Challenge in the Destiel NaNoWriMo fb page. Today's word is Gigantic.

Cas was a quiet sort of guy, he wasn't a hermit or antisocial. He just enjoyed serenity and preferred the company of a handful of true companionship. There was nothing physically or mentally wrong with him, so when he was left on the bench of the police station in Lebanon, Kansas on his first birthday there was no reason to think he wouldn't get snatched up by a lovely couple wanting a child. Yet somehow he’d slipped through the cracks until he was ten and finally someone showed interest. 

Ellen and Bobby Singer had tried for years but couldn't conceive, finally in their forties and approaching the age of no return they decided to open their hearts and home to a child in need. They met Castiel on one of the regularly scheduled meet and greets the agency held and immediately fell in love with the silent, dark haired ten year old. A few months later the papers were signed, and he was brought home. Despite his silence he was a very enjoyable child. He liked board games, showed interest in all the cool greasers and junkers in the yard as well as other various projects Bobby had going. He was also quick to help Ellen around the house with chores, kept his room clean, and seemed eager to learn how to cook. They were pleased to discover he loved to read, a lot. When he wasn't busy keeping them company, he could be found perched in the bay window of his room reading atlases and maps or outside in the big tree perched on a branch with his nose in a mystery. Bobby and Ellen had expected some issues, other than maybe being a little too eager to join them at the hip, he was a dream. So halfway through the summer when a friend of Bobby's and his sons moved in next door, they hoped some friendship would do him some good. 

John Winchester and his boys Dean and Sam had just moved from Barstow, Ca where he officially retired from the Marines. John had grown up in Souix Falls and wanted the same close knit upbringing he had for his boys. Bobby had a quick “heads up” chat with John before introducing Cas but John was eager to meet him and have his sons do the same. He’d raised them to cherish friendships from every walk of life. His wife died in a fire when Sam was six months old. It messed him up something fierce, but he wanted to show his boys that shutting off the world wouldn't stop the hurt and people just needed each other plain and simple. So if love found it's way into your life, you don't ask what kind...you cherish it. He’d not met anyone else like his Mary, but remained open to marriage again if the right person ever came along. So far it hadn't so it was just the three rascals who made the best of each day as they could. 

The day they met Castiel, something changed irrevocably for all of them. Over the next few weeks he began speaking. Not very often, not very loudly, and it was always with thoughtfulness and care. Ellen and Bobby were thrilled at the development, John was proud something about his family had brought a positive change in this nice kid. Sam was a few years younger than Dean, so he didn't get to hang out with him as much at school. But when they got home, they all helped each other with homework so they could have more playtime. They discovered Cas had a gift. He knew things, almost as if his human perception of his environment was a little deeper, more sensitive. He could finish their sentences, he knew when they were craving company or when they needed space. His mind was brilliant and he wrote the most fascinating stories that had you wondering if what occurred in them was fantasy or could it really happen? Everything about Castiel appeared almost too fantastic but just enough in the realm of possible that most people didn't go off the bend if he seemed like a medium or a genius. The families became incredibly close, inseparable almost, and enjoyed years of wonderful memory making.

When Cas was 18, Ellen sadly passed away in a car accident which left Bobby devastated and the lack of income was difficult. Cas had quiet ambitions to write and had been accepted to KU with a scholarship. It was a hard decision and the source of many arguments with Bobby but he decided to stay and get a job to help out. Bobby finally relented when Cas promised he’d work towards a degree online after his shifts at the garage. 

Dean was devastated to be losing his best friend, whom he was supposed to room with him at KU. He understood Cas’s decision, he supported it, but missed him terribly. Cas meant everything to him, he'd always felt so much when they were together. It was overwhelming at times, especially when realizing he’d never even been inclined to date anyone in high school, not once. He was just happy to hang out with Cas. They just felt so...in harmony in each other's company. Now that he was away in college he remained always a faithful friend who spent long weekends and every break he could get away at home with his family. Dean’s family included Bobby and Cas, so during those breaks he not only helped his dad with things around the house but went straight over when he was done at home to see what he could for them as well. 

He knew they didn't have much money, he asked his dad and Sam to keep an eye on them while he was gone. He wanted to know what they were in need of most and John kept him well informed because Bobby played right into John's careful snooping. Dean had really lucked out and gotten a full ride to KU for Mechanical Engineering, housing was included. His mother had secured a sizable life insurance policy so upon her death John learned he and his boys were well taken care of. They lived modestly though to ensure it stayed that way, so Dean got a part time job at an engineering firm in his sophomore year even though he didn't need it and began squirreling his money away. John kept a close eye on Bobby and Cas, he did what he could without seeming weird or philanthropic. He was proud of Dean doing the same, he'd always been a generous kid, offering to help anyone and everybody when he saw a need. For a long time he suspected there was a profound bond between his son and Cas. If his experience with loss taught him anything, it was that love is a gift, one you keep and care for always. 

Over the next few years Bobby's health went downhill despite eating well and responsibly taking his medications. Hospital bills began piling up and again, the spy John was, he passed along what information he could to Dean who took care of as many bills as was feasible. Cas was working two and a half jobs and did what he could for Bobby's health, he even finally accepted John’s help when he offered to “hang out” just so he could get some sleep. When their cars were in need of repair John helped, Dean did too on the weekends. Sam went to Stanford but called home as often as he could, as soon as he asked how his dad and Dean were doing his immediate inquiries went to Cas and Bobby. On his visits home, which of course were far less frequent, he’d shed his Cali board shorts for faded Levi's and a set of work gloves to help out as much as he could too. 

Finally Dean graduated and was hired on with an agricultural firm specializing in research and development of greener Ag equipment. He didn't give a damn about the paycheck, although it relieved him that he wouldn't struggle. The plan was to head home, add to his savings, and maybe see where things headed with Cas. When he came through the front door and settled in his room he found a small package on his bed which instructed him to simply “read”. He opened it up and found a newly printed, first edition hard copy of what looked like a fictitious coming of age story titled The Hurculean Heart by Castiel. 

When did Cas publish a book? How did he have time to write? Just...what? No last name..huh, well to be fair his name is unique enough he never really needed a last name.

It wasn't a beast-size novel, it was 11am so he figured it couldn't hurt to rest a little before his Dad got home. Cas and Bobby’s cars were both gone from next door, if they pulled in before he was done he’d jump right up and help...and tell Cas how proud he was for becoming a published author. He laid back and dug right in, but he could immediately tell this was no ordinary story. 

This began when Cas was old enough to hold a pencil in his little hand and draw stories before letters and words came into the equation. Dozens of pictures spread over a two paged prologue of sorts looked as if they were from a child's journal. The drawings were very detailed, so much so that he could see they weren't of Cas but he and Sam. They showed times when Sammy was a baby and Dean had held him, times when his Dad was sad and he’d hug him too.Then when he was old enough to go to school the pictures showed Dean helping his teachers or a kid crying on a playground. They showed Dean helping pack up from the Marine base and driving to Souix Falls. 

How on earth did Cas know what their base house looked like? 

Then the book showed one last drawing of the day the Winchesters met Cas. The written story began as a woven detailed account of how this small town kid made a massive impact not only on the man writing the story, as detailed in a journal long kept, but how he made life kinder and softer for those around him. Some of the accounts were things he never told anyone about, there was no way ANYONE could have known what he’d done for someone else. Yet his efforts were described in minute detail and what they meant to those whom benefited from the gestures. His name was never mentioned in the story. Not once. Another brilliant feat because other than the famed book “Rebecca”(Rebecca was not the main character) he’d never heard of the main character in a book never having a name. But it had been written as such knowing Dean would prefer it that way, another thing to love about Cas. He really knew his family well. 

A bulk of the story was in journal form, Cas’s handwriting he’d recognize anywhere and he cried reading just how much Cas understood him and valued his hopes and dreams. In the high school and college years Cas had written less, but still spent time drawing because there were sketches and portraits of him in his dorm or in the library...places Cas had never been able to get away from home and visit. How had he known?

It moved on to all the things big and small which he’d done or saved for, to help Cas and Bobby out. Things he knew his Dad never would have confessed to. Dean was so full of wonder and love for Cas. He never planned on him knowing any of it, he just wanted to help make things easier for them. At the end of the book there was hand written instruction to simply “go downstairs”. He wiped his eyes and took the steps three at a time. Cas stood in the family room holding another package, still small but shaped like a rectangle.

Dean couldn't respond yet, the book had rendered him speechless and now Cas had something else for him? It was placed in his hands, he opened it carefully and found a beautiful pen besides a shiny wrench of similar size. He looked at Cas questioningly.

Cas smiled back warmly, “help me build and write the rest of the story?”

His words took Dean’s breath away, never in a million years had he expected this. 

“No, but you hoped and dreamed. As did I” Cas answered his thought.

Dean was surprised, but not completely. “How did you know Cas? About all of this, all of my life? How could you have known?”

“I listened..to you. As long as I can remember I’ve always heard you, like an imaginary friend. One day I knew we’d meet and I would be lucky if you counted me as your friend.”

“What do you mean listened?”

“I never spoke, it was so nice and fun listening to you. Your heart Dean, it's the biggest heart I’ve ever seen or heard. It's filled with love for some many people. You're mine Dean. I don't know how I know, it's just always...been.”

Dean felt such calm settle in him at the acknowledgement Cas felt the same. They've just always been. Here was Cas asking them to continue being together. 

“Yes. Yes!” He said and felt like heaven when Cas hugged him tight in his arms. Never so much as a kiss had passed between them but now, without hesitation he kissed Cas sweetly. It felt like coming home, because he had. He’d always been home with Cas. 

Bobby and John didn't bat an eyelash at the news. In fact Bobby said in his sarcastic tone, “oh gee whiz I never woulda seen that coming a mile away…” while John just nodded and smiled. 

Sam was howling in exultation from Palo Alto when he heard the news. They’d always been family, nothing would change. So the quiet child, who had always been just a little something more, married the boy whose heart was stronger and bigger than any he'd ever heard. They lived happily ever after.


End file.
